The largest newspaper seminar for community journalists will be presented on August 17 and 18 at Olifants River Lodge.

An unprecedented 89 delegates will attend the seminar.

The programme kicks off on Thursday evening at 18:00, with motivator and author Dr Henning Gericke, who will not only introduce his wide range of books but will also hold a team-building session.

Friday’s programme will be as follows:

8:30 Dr Henning Gericke – Rugby World Cup psychologist and motivational speaker – The Vulture and You.

9:00 Hennie Homann – Convener of the Avbob FCJ Excellence Awards’ Photographic Competition, will provide feedback on the 2023 entries.

9:45 Andre Brandmuller – lawyer and community leader – “Yes, you can make a difference.”

10:30 Brunch

11:30 Andre Gouws – Convener of the Avbob FCJ Excellence Awards, will provide feedback on the 2023 entries.

12:15 Inge Kühne – editor of Rapport – For the love of (community) newspapers.

The seminar is known as the No Guts, No Story, No Glory seminar after the first chairman of the FCJ, Frans Auckamp, spoke in 1994 about investigative journalism under the theme: No Guts, No Story, No Glory. The seminar was held inside Paxton Prison in eMalahleni.

The name stuck and is known in the media industry as the No Guts seminar.

The first regional seminar for community newspapers was held at Botshabelo, outside Middelburg, in 1993, and the first speaker was Jan Jansen, who was an election observer in the 1994 democratic election.

Over the years, there have been interesting speakers such as Dr Tharina Guse, Dr Mickey Pistorius, Hugh Lewin, Dr Pedro Diederichs, Fanie Groenewald, Phyllis Green, Sam Nzima and Deon Basson.

Journalists from Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng will attend.